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A COMPLETE SYSTEM 

OK 

RAISING TURKEYS, 

HENS, GEESE, &c., 

THE KESULJ OF 



Forty Years' Experience 



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XORWICH. C^i" 

PK/.VTED BY CORDON UlLCOX 

1873- 



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IPI^EIPj^CE. 



1 have been a farmer all my life. I am no book farmer. I have 
raised and help raise Turkeys for over forty years ; I have watched 
their habits closely ; I have got what information I could, and put 
it in practice, until the raising of Turkeys has become to me al- 
most a perfected science ; and having been very strongly solicited 
by many of my friends to put my knowledge of the art in print, 
I have reluctantly consented. And if by the printing of this little 
i)ook, the farmers can be informed how to raise TurkevR to eat the 
bugs, worms, grasshoppers, &c-, and thereby convert those pests 
of earth into good nourishing food, it will afford lasting comfort to 

THE AUTHOR. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlu- year 1878, by 

W. A. BROWNING, 
In the ijffice of tlie Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



RAISING TtTRKEYS 



BIRDS. 

Almost all kinds of beasts and birds that are 
wild are one and the same color : that is, the 
same species are of the same color, the male of 
some kinds of birds differing as to color from the 
female ; while almost all kinds of domestic (or 
tame) beasts and birds are of different colors. 

TURKEYS. 

Turkeys in their wild state, in the western 
forests, are a very light bronze or brown, while 
the domestic or tame turkeys, as every one 
knows, are of various colors. The wild turkeys 
are very hardy, while the domestic or tame tur- 
keys, when young, are many times very tender, 
requiring much care. The way I would recom- 
mend, to raise them successfully, would be some- 
thing in the following manner : 



YARD. 

There should be a yard of one-fourth of an 
acre, in which nothing but turkeys should be al- 
lowed to go during the early part of the season 
A yard set to pears, peaches or currants (what 
every farmer should have,) is just the place ; and 
in trimming the trees or bushes, leave the brush 
in heaps, for the turkeys love to get into the 
brush out of sight to lay. In the latter part of 
March suitable nests should be made, and the 
turkeys watched and made to stay in the ynul 
till tiiey all lay. Or, by building a picket fence 
eight feet high, and putting brush on top, they 
are not apt to get out, and by putting them in 
during the fore part of the day, wlien they usu- 
ally lay, they may be let out towards night and 
put in again in the morning. Then in this yard 
they will be out of the way of hogs, cattle, &c. 

TO MAKE THEM LAY. 

Where there is a spring or a brook near the 
house, where the turkeys can get green grass 
in the month of March, they usually lay ear- 
lii'r ; and early spring turkeys will (with proper 
care) be vnv\y lall turkeys. A good piece oC 



winter rye near the house is sometimes very ben- 
eticial to turkeys about hiving early, for they 
need something green. When turkeys roam in 
tlie fiekis during the summer season, they pick 
the grass and weeds ; they also eat grasshoppers, 
w^orms, and bugs ; they eat vegetables, and they 
eat meat ; feed them with warm dough, and mix 
into it scraps or bits of nieat, and a little Cayeimc 
pep])er. 

NESTS. 

Nests made on the ground are better than u\ 
barrels ; for in barrels, when the turkey sets, the 
boards under the turkey many times become so 
heated that the eggs will die. The eggs of all 
birds that lay and set on the ground are contin- 
ually being cooled from the ground, while they 
are heated from the bird ; so with birds that lay 
in nests on trees, the air circulating under theii* 
nests serves to cool the eggs to a certain extent. 
Nests should be made of the proper size and cov- 
ered, to protect the turkey from the rain, and 
made so tight that, when the eggs are hatched, 
and the turkey is being taken off with the little 
ones, that the little ones cannot get into the wall 
or brush, and thereby be lost. A very good way 
to m;«ke nests is. to cut your boards two fret long, 



and nail one end of each piece to a billet of wood 
or bit of a joist two feet long, and spread at the 
other end two feet, so that it will be a kind of 
gable shaped coop; then board one end tight, and 
nail a bit of a board across the top of the front, 
so that the turkey can get in and out. This may 
be kept for years, and moved from place to place 
when needed. A quicker way to build a tur- 
key's nest (and perhaps equally as good) is to 
put boards on three sides of a nest of a proper 
length and hight, supported by stubs drove in 
the ground, with a board on top large enough to 
cover the nest, and a stone on top of the board, 
so that when the turkey is taken off she cannot 
li utter and knock the board off, and get away. 
If you can, always have your nests open to the 
south, for the turkey will be better protected 
from the cold storms of April and May. When 
a turkey lays in the brush, and you fix a nest 
for her, put back some of the brush around the 
nest, or she may forsake it. 

TWO OR MORE TURKEYS LAYING TOGETHER. 

When two or more turkeys lay in one nest, 
let them lay half a dozen eggs to a turkey ; then 



build other nests each side, and put addled or 
chalk eggs into thera; for where there is a good 
nest with eggs in it, a turkey is not apt to crowd 
on to a nest with another turkey. I have had 
five set in a row, and all did well ; but they need 
watching w^hen they are setting, as they w^ill 
sometimes go on to a nest with another turkey, 
and the eggs get cold and die. One or two chalk 
eggs should be kept in each nest while turkeys 
are laying. 

EGGS. 

The eggs should be brought in every night, to 
prevent their freezing or being destroyed by ver- 
min, (unless they are in a w^arm secure place, ) 
and put in a basket or dish, to the number of 
seventeen or eighteen, as many as you want to 
set under one turkey, the baskets being marked 
1, 2, 3, &c. : and when you set a turkey, set her 
on the eggs in one basket. The reason for this 
is, old eggs are longer in being hatched than new 
layed eggs — probably takes one day longer to 
hatch eggs ten or twelve days old than new ones, 
and about in that proportion, as they become 
older. When turkeys lay, and the eggs are left 



ill the nest, the turkey going on every day to hiy 
and setting an hour or so. warms the eggs and 
they will all hatch together. The eggs should 
be covered with a cloth, (the turkey covers with 
straw or leaves,) it keeps tliem warm — they do 
not die so quick, — and they should be turned 
over once a week, or the yelks may settle on one 
side ; the turkey going on and coming off trom 
her nest, stepping her feet among the eggs, moves 
them. A very good Avay to keep them is to set 
tliem on the little end, and cover them with oats. 
Turkeys' eggs kept cold for twenty-five days are 
apt to die. When a turkey lays thirty eggs, the 
last ten w ill not hatch as w^ell as tiie first twenty, 
if all are properly cared for. When the nest is 
secure from hogs, vermin, &c., and the weather 
is warm enough so that the eggs will not freeze, 
by all means leave the eggs in the nest, and let 
tlie turkey manage to suit herself; the eggs will 
hatch better in that way than any other, because 
it is natural. God has taught the turkey how to 
do it just right. When a turkey is setting, if slie 
stays off all night, the eggs will not die unless 
they get very cold, — as old people used to say, 
*' stone cold." 



9 
SETTING. 

Turkeys laying side by side should be set at 
tiie same timej (pa^ying atteution to the age of 
the eggs, however,) for if they are not set at the 
same time, when one hatches, the peeping of the 
little turkeys will make the old ones uneasy, and 
it is sometimes very difficult to prevent them 
from forsaking their nests. When a turkey goes 
on to set, take away all the good eggs, leaving 
two or three addled eggs, or bad eggs, and let 
her set, (if other turkeys lay by the side of her) 
and to prevent otlier turke)\s layiny^ to her, set a 
])it of a board before her nest two or three hours 
in a day, say from eight till twelve ; and when 
all that lay side by side are ready to set, put un- 
der the eggs ; and sprinkle a teaspoonful of yel- 
low snuff in the nest, (to kill the lice,) which it 
is well to renew in two weeks, at some time 
when the turkey is off Sometimes we cannot 
make all the turkeys lay near the house ; they 
will steal away into the woods and lay; then 
watch them and hud tlieir nests, and secure the 
eggs, and when the turkey goes on to set let her 
set five or six days ; tiicn very carefully take her 
from her nest aiid put her on to a. nest where 
you want her to set, and shut her on three or four 



10 

(lays, then take away the board and let her come 
of!' when she pleases ; but when she comes off 
she will go back to her woods nest unless she is 
watched and drove back on to her nest. If she 
persists in going to her nest in the woods, let her 
go ; and when she gets quietly set on her woods 
nest take her by the legs and bring her home, 
and shut her on for a week ; for turkeys when 
setting do not usually come off* oftener than once 
in from four to seven days, if nothing is the mat- 
ter. When turkeys are setting, the eggs becom- 
ing uncomfortably warm under them, they will 
stand up and with their bills they will mix their 
eggs all together, and roll them over, to get the 
cold side up ; and in so doing they scmietimes 
break an egg, and when they do they invariably 
take that egg in their bills and carry it off"; and 
then we say that turkey is eating up her eggs; 
but it is only because nature teaches her to keep 
her nest clean. But if the yelk of the broken 
egg gets on to the other eggs, in nine cases out 
of ten it will kill every egg that it touches, un- 
less the eggs are washed in warmish water and 
wiped clean, and the nest cleaned out and the 
eggs put back, after first putting a little dry 
straw or leaves into the nest. I have lost a 



11 

whole nest full [eighteen egg^i] at a time, noth- 
ing the matter only the breaking of some of the 
eggs, — the turkey being a little distance from 
the house, I could not or did not attend to her. 
On breaking the fourteen remaining eggs some of 
them just showed the effects of incubation, some 
of the young ones were half grown, and some 
were almost ready to hatch, — showing very plain- 
ly that the eggs had been killed at different 
times. V/hen the turkeys are fed with dough 
and a little lime mixed with it, during the month 
of March, or when the turkeys have a plenty of 
broken oyster shells to pick upon, they are not 
apt to lay eggs with the shells so thin as to break. 
When two or more turkeys set side by side and 
hatch, and are taken off and put together, they 
are very apt to herd together and not fight, 
thereby running over and killing the little ones ; 
for when the little ones are being hatched they 
are continually peeping, and the old ones talking 
to them in brooding notes, they become acquaint- 
ed with each others' voices ; consequently are 
not apt to fight. If they do not set side by side, 
but are taken off at the same time and put to- 
gether, they can, with a little care for two or 
three days, be made to herd together. 



12 



TAKING THEM FROM THE NEST. 

When a turkey is ready to be taken off, take 
a small basket and go quietly to the nest and put 
your hand under the turkey and take out two or 
three little ones and put into the basket, and so 
continue to do, as long as the turke}^ will set 
still ; but when slie becomes so uneasy that she 
is about to come off, then take her carefully by 
the legs and take her off, then catch the remain- 
ing little ones ; if the turkey is wild, it is better 
to catch her before taking out the little ones ; 
but if gentle, catch the little ones first, for t bew- 
are less liable to get hurt if the turkey flutters. 
Then have a strong decoction of tobacco already 
made, and with this wash the old turkey on the 
under side of the wings and on the naked parts 
of the body under the wings, which Avill kill the 
lice, if there are any, and if there are none the 
tobacco will do no harm. If the young turkeys 
get lou.sy. put yellow snuff and grease on the 
under side of their wings, and naked parts of 
the body ; for little turkeys will not live, or if 
they live they will not thrive or grow when they 
are lous3\ If you find they droop or act sleepy 
exanrine them, and if 3 on can find any lice, yard 



them Iiniuediately, and apply the snuH' and 
urease to all, both old and young. Mix a little 
sulphur with their dough occasionally, at the 
rate of a teaspoonful to a pint of meal. Large 
flocks of turkej^s are more liable to be lousy than 
tiocks with less in number. 

MANAGING THE L.ITTI.E ONES. 

When turkeys are taken off from their nests 
make a yard with three boards that are twelve or 
fifteen feet long and twelve inches wide, so tight 
that the little ones cannot get out, and put boards 
on one or two corners for a shelter. In this yard 
put one, two, or three old turkeys with their 
young ones, — as many as will remain peaceable. 
When turkeys are taken off, if some of the little 
ones are not strong, wrap them in a cloth and 
put them under the stove ; or Avhat is better, put 
them uuder a setting turkey or dunghill hen, 
until they are fit to put into the yard. Seta 
pie-pan of water in the yard, so that the little 
ones call get in and get out. Keep the turkeys 
in this little yard two days or more, and then let 
them out. when the weather is pl<\Msant and the 
dew is otf. 



14 
RAMBLE. 



Turkeys must be allowed to ramble, or they 
will have the gapes, or they will be sickly and 
feeble ; they will not live and do well if kept 
shut up for any length of time. If turkeys are 
inclined to ramble more than you want them to, 
or get into the mowing or grain, then tie a shin- 
gle to the wings of the old ones, with the strings 
close to the body ; then they cannot fly ; then 
stop the bars up tig] it, and you can keep them 
out of mischief; indeed you can pasture them 
almost as well as you can geese or hogs. They 
can hover (or brood) their little ones just as w^ell. 

WATCHING. 

Turkeys should be w atched constantly for three 
weeks after they are hatched, to keep the crowds 
and hawks from catching them, and to prevent 
any from straying behind and getting lost, and 
to make them go in flocks or herds ; and even a 
longer time is better, for the longer 3'ou watch 
them the more you will raise. I have lost twen- 
ty this season that have been, as I suppose, 
caught by the hawks after they would weigh a 
pound to the turkey. 



15 
LARGE GRASS. 

Turkeys should not be allowed to go into 
large grass with their little ones, for the little 
ones struggling through the grass, get tired and 
set down, and the old turkey passes on out of 
hearing, and the little one sets there and dies. 
It is very, very difficult to raise turkeys success- 
lully where it is heavy mowing- all around the 
house ; for one-half of them vrill drabble to death 
when the grass is wet, and the other half will 
do about as much damage as they are worth. 
On the great fertile plains of the west they are 
better off without turkeys than with. It is a 
crop (so to speak) adapted to the sterile soil of 
New England. 

HERD. 

Make as many herd togetlier as possible, for 
it takes but little longer to drive home eight old 
ones and a hundred young ones, than it does one 
old one and twelve young ones. And if the tur- 
keys get on to your neighbor's land, or get into 
mischief, you will not have so many flocks to 
look after. 

. F£ED. 

The best feed for little turkeys is corn ground 
coarse, and eggs boiled hard and chopped very 



16 

fine and mixed with new milk, about in the pro- 
portion of one egg to a pint of meal, and mix it 
rather dry ; it will scatter better ; it gives the 
little ones a better chance to get a crumb or two; 
the old ones cannot eat it up from them. When 
the little ones are two weeks old, give them 
less and less eggs ; they will begin to shift for 
themselves; then boil sour milk into a curd 
and mix their meal with that ; and as they grow 
older have their corn <^ round coarser ; it is not so 
liable to bake in their crops. Little turkeys 
need but little to eat, bui: need it often. When 
they are hatched their crops are full. If you do 
not want your turkeys to lay the second litter, 
let them eat with the little ones until the little 
ones have learned to eat ; then with a stick drive 
the old ones carefully away when ) ou feed the 
little ones. If you feed the old ones they will 
most assuredly lay the second litter. Turke) s 
should for the first two months be fed morning, 
noon and night; and they should always be fed 
twice in a day, and they should always be drove 
home at night, else the skunks or foxes will 
catch them. They should never be fed after six 
o'clock at night ; you nni\' find some dead in the 
morning. Horses and cattle eat during the 



17 



night, but turkeys never do; you should not at- 
tempt to change the order of nature. They 
should always have a j)lenty of oyster shells in 
the cart path that they can go to,' morning and 



night. 



STABLING WHEN YOUNG. 

' Care should be taken that they do not set with 
their little ones in hollows at night, as there mav 
be rain, and pond around them and drown them 
by scores. In rain storms or showers they should 
l3e put under the barn, or on the barn floor, or iu 
a stable, putting only one flock in a place. It is 
well to put them in the stable every night till 
they are a month old or more ; then they are 
out of the storms and secure from vermin ; and 
when you want to kill them in the fall of the 
year, they will not be afraid of the barn, and, 
you can yard them as well as you can a flock of 
sheep. If in the stable, as a matter of course 
they set on the ground (of floor); they are not 
as liable to be deformed as they are when drove 
on to the trees to roost, when they are too small ; 
for when little turkeys roost on the trees too 
3 oimg, when they are growing fast, their little 
bones are soft and limber and their breast bones 



18 

become crooked; and usually grow worse and 
worse, until many times they are very much de- 
fonned. Such turkeys it is almost impossible to 
fatten, and they never dress off handsome. Care 
should be taken that too many little ones do not 
get under one old one ; for the old turkey in 
stepping and changing her position for rest dur- 
ing the night, if there are too many little ones 
under her, will sometimes step her toe across a 
little one's neck and choke it to death. I have 
lost three or four under one old turkey in a night. 
Twenty is as many as a turkey ought to brood 
(or hover) at one time, and fifteen is better. 

KIND OF TURKEYS. 

Turkeys two, three, or four years old are tlie 
best ages to keep for breeders, for tliey are more 
apt to be gentle, and they are better mothers or 
nurses, and they lay larger eggs, and the young- 
ones are larger and stronger when first hatched. 
Never save little late turkeys for breeders, for, 
as a general thing, they lay little eggs and hatch 
little feeble turkeys. It is w^eli to kill some old 
ones and save some young ones, every year. 
Have your turkeys as gentle as possible ; it is 
convenient and profitable. Change gobblers 



10 

with some neighbor every year, and be sure and 
see that the gobbler s breast is straight, and that 
he is well proportioned, with his legs not too 
long fo.r his body, and see that he struts and 
gobbles well. One gobbler is enough for twelve 
hens. Where a gobbler is as tall as a crane the 
young ones are very apt to be crooked breasted, 
and otherwise deformed. 

MARKING. 

When neighbors live near each other, so that 
their turkeys get together, one neighbor may 
mark his turkeys in one way, and another mark 
his in another way. My mark is, when I butcher 
my turkeys in the fall of the year, I catch every 
turkey (not already marked) that I am going to 
save for a breeder, and sew a piece of thin 
leather (old boot leg) an inch or more in width 
around the turkey's leg, sewing it loosely, or the 
leather will wet and dry and shrink, and lame 
the turkey. Another way is to sew a strong 
piece of cloth, of any color you may select for 
your mark. Another way is to cut off the end 
of one of the toes. In this way all sized tur- 
keys may be marked. You may cut the toe off 
from the little one when you take it from the 



^20 

nest. Bv markins: vour turkevs, and then tak- 
ing proper care, you may keep your turkeys on 
your own land ; for neighbors are under no more 
obligation to keep their neighbors' turkeys than 
they are their neighbors' sheep ; both are taxable 
j)ropert\\ and both are liable for dnniages. 

SALT. 

Salt is very poisonous to turkeys. In salting 
meat in winter we sometimes turn the old brine 
that we throw away dow^n in the barn yard ; 
and that will not freeze, and for want of water 
the turkeys will drink the brine and die. I have 
lost them repeatedly. I have a neighbor who 
saw his turkeys drink the brine, and though 
they were perfectly well when they drank it. yet 
all three of them died in twenty-four hours. In 
salting cattle in the summer, if they do not lick 
it up clean, the little turkeys seeing that it looks 
white, like their dough, will sometimes pick it 
up and die. I lost ten at one time by eating 
salt. The little boy who was watching them 
saw them eat it and drove them away as quick 
as possible. Some of them died in fifteen min- 
utes ; and they kept dying for twenty-four hours. 



n 

TO FAT TURKEYS, 

Boiled potatoes mashed and mixed with meal 
are very good to fat turkej^s, but old sound corn 
is better ; and good old corn meal boiled to a 
pudding is still better. Turkeys should not be 
ted with new corn until it is pretty well dried, 
for it makes them too loose ; it affects them in 
the same way that green grass does our cattle in 
the spring of the jear. Wlien w^e first turn our 
cattle to grass, in the spring of the year, we do 
not expect them to fatten. Corn must be sound ; 
they will not eat musty corn ; at least they wall 
not eat enough to become fat. New England 
corn is worth more, pound for pound, than we.st- 
ern corn Do not feed any more to them than 
they will eat up clean. Take a little time to 
feed them, and throw^ corn to them until some of 
them begin to stop and look round ; then stop feed- 
ing. Or feed them in part on half shelled ears of 
corn. In that. w ay you keep their appetites good, 
for they are apt to get cloyed. Apples do them 
but little if any good ; the apples physic them 
too much. Turkeys fed on wdiite corn will be 
whiter when dressed than those fed on yellow 
corn. When turkeys have learned what milk is, 
(which they will learn very quick by putting it 



2-2 

in troughs or pans near where you feed them,) 
they will drink it voracious]}^ ; and milk, w^ieth- 
er new or skimmed, will make almost as manj^ 
pounds of turkey as it wnll of pork — worth near- 
ly three times as much. If turkeys are too loose, 
scald the milk and let it cool, then give it to 
them ; it w\\\ regulate their bowels in a wonder- 
ful manner. To fatten turkeys good, they should 
be fed, at the least, twice a day, from the day 
they are taken from the nest till the day before 
they are killed ; always taking care that they 
have a plenty of water or milk. When tuikeys 
are fat their feathers will shine in the sun, of a 
beautiful changeable green and purple. 

BUTCHERING. 

When you get ready to butcher, feed the tur- 
keys as usual, the night before you intend to kill 
them ; then make the barn floor tight, by nail- 
ing up boards before the mangers, &c.; then open 
the great barn doors as quick as the turkeys 
com.e off from the roost in the morning, and 
drive them carefully in ; they will not fly much 
when they first come off from their roost in the 
morning ; nor will there be anything in their 
crops. When once on the barn floor, you can 
drive them into the alley, or catch them and put 



23 

them in a stable, or catch them on the barn floor 
as you want to kill them. Then fasten some 
strong cords or small ropes in a shed or stable, or 
under the barn, at a proper bight, with a slip- 
knot in the end ; and in this slip-knot put a tur- 
key's legs, and with a small knife stick the tur- 
key as near the head as you can, and let him 
flutter. Some prefer sticking them in the mouth, 
by opening the mouth and holding on to the up- 
per part of the bill with the left hand, then bend 
the head back and put the knife into the mouth 
and cut across the neck bone until you cut off 
the veins. The neck is cleaner when you get 
them dressed, but it takes them longer to die. 
As soon as he stops fluttering, so that you can 
work at him, strip ofl" the feathers, pin-feathers 
and all ; cut the neck oflf as near the head as 
possible ; cutoff the wings and draw the turkey 
before you take it out of the rope ; or, in other 
words, hang it up by the heels alive, and take it 
down ready for market ; then lay it on its breast 
or side, on a clean board, to cool. If the weath- 
er is very cold, carry them into the house or 
shop, (by the Are) to pin-feather and draw. 
Avoid rubbing the skin off from their backs, for 
it rubs off very easv when they are warm, and 



24- 

looks bad. If turkeys are a8 fat as they should 
be, it is well to rid the inwards, and put the 
ricldings into the tuikey ; it makes excellent 
stuffing. Some prefer to kill the turkey and take 
him in their lap ; then hold his head between 
the right leg and the box into which they are 
putting the feathers, and hold his legs with the 
left hand, and with the right liand pick the 
feathers. Perhaps they can pick faster in this 
way, but it is very difficult to dress them with- 
out rubbing the skin off from their backs. Take 
care to dress your turkeys nice ; get out all the 
pin-feathers ; it makes a cent in a pound differ- 
ence in the price, when the dealer gets them 
into market. A poor turkey neatly dressed will 
sell almost as well as a fat turkey meanly dressed. 
When you carrj^ to market, pack your turkeys 
on their breasts, and have clean straw in the 
bottom of the wagon ; and as you pack them, 
sprinkle straw on their necks ; it keeps them 
from getting bloody. 

REMARKS. 

One great secret of raising turkeys is to take 
care — and take care all summer ; and even then 
you cannot always raise them, for they will not 
lay, or they ^yill not hatch, or something will 



befall them. Souietiines we raise turkeys with- 
out much of any rare, and say it is luck ; and it 
is hick ; for sometimes we have an appktree in a 
pasture, that without any care will produce a 
plenty of good apples, but it is not half as liable 
to as a tree well cared for. A bo)- ten or tw^elve 
years old, with a little direction from his flither, 
will do the taking care to raise a hundred tur- 
keys; he cannot earn so much money in any 
other way. It is an old maxim that if a thing- 
is w^ortli doing-, it is w^orth well doing ; still, some 
may think that if this is the way to raise tur- 
keys, it is too much trouble. To such an one 1 
would say, you can omit any part or ail of it, if 
you choose. If you know any better system, by 
all means pursue the best course. I give you my 
experience of forty years, and I will give you a 
sketch of my success for the past four or five 
years. I have usually summered over from eight 
to eleven hen turkeys. I have reared from nine- 
ty-nine to a hundred and thirty-seven in a sum- 
mer. This year I have a hundred and fifty-three. 
1 shall probably lose some between tliis tinje 
[Sept. 2d,] and butchering time. 



26 
PROFITS. 

In 1868 I sold my turkeys for 27 cents a pound ; 
they came to $380 40. In 1869 I sold my tur- 
keys, some for 25, and some for 27 cents a pound ; 
the amount sold was $386 18. That year I kept 
an account of expenses : I fed from Jan. first, 

1869 to Jan. tirst, 1870, $147 60 worth of grain ; 
the expense of butchering and marketing w^as 
$10 ; and allowing the grass they eat at $15, the 
prolit I got for raising them was $213 58. In 

1870 I sold for 25 cents a pound; the amount 
sold was.$311 37. In 1871 I sokl for 18 cents a 
pound; the amount sold was $286 13 ; and at 
these low^ figures the net profits were more than 
$150. 

I had rather raise and fat turkeys at fifteen 
cents a pound than to raise and fat pork at ten 
cents a pound. Perhaps in fatting pork you may 
save the manure better ; but take care to save 
the droppings of the turkeys ; if gathered up 
once a week and kept dry, it is worth nearly half 
as much as guano ; it is certainly w^orth a cent a 
pound. You can over stock with turkeys as well 
as you can wnth sheep or cattle, or anything else. 
When the}' have eaten up all the grasshoppers. 



27 

bugs, and worms, it requires a good deal of feed- 
ing and very great care to make them do well. 
Turkeys W'ill always sell, and sell for the 
money ; they are a great luxury, and they are 
not expensive living, for there is but little w^aste 
to them, and they are a very nourishing, healthy 
food. The poultry dealers say that the demand 
increases faster than the supply, for the Ameri- 
can people are the most industrious and the most 
enterprising people that ever lived ; and they 
exceed in extravagance of food, dress, &c., as 
much as they do in enterprise. It is very fast 
becoming the fashion that every familj^, from the 
millionaire to the pauper, or even the state pris- 
on convicts, must have a roast turkey for Thanks- 
giving, and another for Christmas. The market 
is not likely to be overstocked or the business 
overdone, for it is too much like work for lazy- 
folks to raise turkeys successfully every time. 

HENS. 

Much has been ^vritten in regard to dunghill 
fowls. To have hens lay well in the winter, they 
should have a warm, tight roost, w^ell lighted on 
the south side, and a shed or hovel opening south, 



'2)^ 



where they eaii .stand in the sun and scratch in 
the dirt. Feed them with warm dough, and 
some bits of meat of some kind, and sprinkle a 
little Cayenne pepper on their dough. See that 
they have some powdered oyster shells or gravel 
that they can have access to. Be sure that they 
have water every day. Let them have a heap 
of dry ashes to roll in ; it keeps them from being 
lousy. Whitewash the inside of the roost once^ 
a year. Rub the roosting poles with kerosene 
oil once in two or three months, and you will 
not be plagued with lice. Scrape and clean the 
roost out once a month, and your chickens wnll 
not be likely to have the gapes, or get lousy. 
Sprinkle a tea-spoonful of yellow snuff in their 
nests occasionally. 

GEESE. 

Geese are the most uncertain fowls that we 
raise, but where they do w^ell they are the most 
profitable fowds that we raise, though cattle, &c. 
do not like the grass where they run. They 
should be treated kindly, so as to make them as 
gentle as possible. They should have a spring 
or brook to go to. especially in the latter j)art of 



winter or early .spring, for then they will tread 
well, and gathering greon grass they will lay 
earlier, and lay a orreater nuniher of eggs than 
where they live on snow and eorn. But where 
there is no spring- or brook, then make them m 
large flat trongh, in which keep a plenty of water ; 
and when the Aveather is cold, warm the water a 
little, that it may not freeze so qnick. It is very 
necessary for them to have water, to drink and 
to tread in. If the)' can get green grass, they 
need but little feed during the latter part of win- 
ter and the spring. If they do not get green grass, 
feed them with w^arm dotigh, with some bits of 
meat or a little grease mixed with it. Shut them 
up nights under the barn or shed, or some place 
where they will be secure from drifting snows, 
and there make for them nests. Bring the eggs 
into the house at night (if there is any danger 
of their freezing,) and cover them with a cloth ; 
the goose covers with straw" or leaves. It is 
safest to keep chalk eggs in the nest ; they will 
not freeze nor break. When a goose wants to 
set, put the eggs in her nest and let her set ; and 
when she hatches, let her come off herself. A 
goose will cover nine eggs, and a large goose will 



no 

cover eleven or twelve. If you can, it is best to 
set them all at once ; then tliey will come off 
together, and will not fight so bad. 

Take care to keep the goslings out of the rain, 
(when small ;) they will drown as quick as 
chickens. Feed the old ones with dough ; the 
goslings will learn to eat in a day or two. Take 
particular care that the goslings do not get angle 
worms to eat; for if they do, they will die. 

The geese will do to pick in ten days after the 
goslings come off; and then the geese will do to 
pick again in nine week* ; and the goslings will 
do to pick on the breasts ; and then in nine weeks 
more they will do to pick again. There are some 
little slim quills under the wings which should 
not be plucked ; if they are, the wings will droop, 
and then they grow poor; and on the goslings, 
the bunch of feathers on their sides, on which 
their wings rest, should not be disturbed. The 
goslings should run in the pasture four or five 
weeks after picking the last time, before they 
are shut up to fat, so that the feathers may grow, 
as the feathers do not grow well when they are 
shut up. 



31 

To fat goslings to advantage, shut thorn in a 
small pen, covered to keep them from flying out, 
and give them a plenty of corn nnd water ; and 
fix the corn and water so that the goslings can- 
not get into them — which can be arranged by 
nailing barrel staves nearly perpendicular, so 
that the goslings can put their heads between 
the staves ; for if they get into the corn or water 
they will make them so nasty that they will not 
eat or drink. One gander is sufficient for three 
or even four geese, but two grese and a gand'T 
make the best arranged flock ; the gander is k-ss 
liable to fight the goose that is not bis special 
favorite. Geese one year old rarely raise many 
goslings. Every farmer should keep some geese; 
for, (if they do not raise goslings,) by picking 
them three times during the summer, the feath- 
ers will pretty nearly pay their keeping. 

DUCKS, GUINEA HENS, &c. 

Ducks should be treated nearly the same as 
geese, except we set ducks' eggs under hens, and 
then we take them off the same as chickens or 
turkeys. Where a person lives by the side of a 



32 

cove or tadpole pond in which the ducks (after 
the young ones are half grown) can rollick, may 
make it profitable to keep ducks; but as a gene- 
ral thing, those who intend to keep ducks or 
guinea hens, and more especially pigeons and 
peacocks, had better keep debit and credit, and 
see how the books balance. 



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